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ODRAZ B92, Belgrade Daily News Service
Odraz B92 vesti (by 9 PM), December 18, 1996
e-mail: beograd@siicom.com URL: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/
odrazb92@b92.opennet.org http://www.siicom.com/b92/
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All texts are Copyright 1996 Radio B92. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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NEWS BY 9 PM
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STUDENTS STOPPED AT THE APPROACH TO DEDINJE
Today's attempt of UofB students [their third so far] to take
their protest walk to the streets of Dedinje failed. Students
headed to this elite Belgrade area where Slobodan Milosevic also
resides in response to yesterday's statement by the Serbian
minister of interior Zoran Sokolovic that police never stopped
them from entering Dedinje in the first place. In the two previous
attempts, the students were barred from proceeding any further by
cordons of heavily armed police stationed in the Knez Milos
Street. Some 20,000 students were today again stopped in the same
manner at another Belgrade intersection. The police message was
again the same: ``This is as far as you may go.'' The students
reacted to this by putting a two-meter ``pyramid'' in front of the
police cordon, with an inscription on it saying ``Dedinje: The
Forbidden City.''
``We will measure out the borders of the Forbidden City in the
forthcoming days'' said Dusan Vasiljevic, spokesman for the
Steering Board of Student Protest '96, adding that students have
proved today that freedom of movement, guaranteed by the Serbian
constitution, is no longer available to ordinary citizens of
Belgrade.
``NEDELJNI TELEGRAF:'' AMBIVALENCE AND AMBIGUITY IN THE TOP RANKS
Today's run of ``Nedeljni Telegraf'' [Weekly Telegraph] carries an
article about the confusion among the top army ranks who are
divided on the issue of how to position themselves in the current,
and so far non-violent conflict between the regime and its
opponents. The article reports that SPS, the ruling party headed
by Slobodan Milosevic, has been putting increasing pressure on the
top generals of the Yugoslav army to declare themselves openly and
make a stand on the situation in Serbia. The same article also
adds that, according to the weekly's sources inside the Yugoslav
army, its commanding officers have been resisting this pressure so
far with the support of army's top brass.
At the same time, reports ``Nedeljni Telegraf,'' a considerable
number of officers have defied army orders and have been
participating in street protests in Belgrade, Nis, Pirot,
Kragujevac, Kraljevo, Cacak and Uzice.
Faced with serious breaches of discipline, the Defense Council
held an extraordinary session on December 10, at which lieutenant-
general Momcilo Perisic, commander-in-chief at the Army
Headquarters, was asked to visit all army units and hold top-level
meetings with their commanding officers in an effort to prevent
any future officer participation in the protests. ``Nedeljni
Telegraf'' reports that lieutenant-general Perisic was explicitly
asked to elaborate on the present state of the Yugoslav army and
give his personal evaluation of how the army would be likely to
respond if asked to intervene and repress the current wave of
opposition protests in Serbia.
According to the sources quoted in the article, Perisic assured
the Defense Council that the army has been put on the alert and is
currently in the state of battle preparedness in all larger towns
and cities in Serbia. He added, however, that in all probability
it would respond only in case FR Yugoslavia came under attack by a
foreign power.
The Belgrade weekly emphasizes that the Defense Council session
ended in an atmosphere of ambiguity and ambivalence, with most of
the questions left hanging in the air. It also reports that Momir
Bulatovic, president of Montenegro, closed the session with an
appeal to Slobodan Milosevic not to involve the army in any
attempt to repress popular discontent. None of those present,
concludes ``Nedeljni Telegraf,'' including Zoran Lilic, Slobodan
Milosevic, Pavle Bulatovic and Momcilo Perisic, responded to Momir
Bulatovic's appeal.
ANOTHER MARATHON WALK BY STUDENTS
Ten students of the University in Kragujevac left Kragujevac for
Belgrade this morning. The students, who are on a solidarity march
to express support for their UofB counterparts, are expected to
arrive in Belgrade at noon tomorrow. They will also attempt to
hand in their letter of protest to Slobodan Milosevic, asking him
to address them in public. The distance students from Kragujevac
will have to walk is 125 kilometers.
PROTEST WALK IN BELGRADE
The 29th day of protests by supporters of Zajedno began in
Belgrade at 3 p.m. today. Today's itinerary was announced as
starting from the Square of the Republic; the demonstrators are
expected to pass by the embassies of the USA and the Russian
Federation. Further details on today's demonstrations will be
available in the next B92 news bulletin.
COUNTER-PROTESTS: SUPPORT FOR MILOSEVIC
In Smederevska Palanska and Sremska Mitrovica, supporters of the
left coalition staged a 'meeting in support' of Slobodan
Milosevic. Similar meetings are announced to take place in
Krusevac tomorrow starting from 3 p.m. and, according to head of
the Pirot Serbian Socialist Party Momcilo Cvetkovic in Pirot on
Saturday, December 21. Glorija Klepic from Novi Knezevac, a
participant of the 'meeting in support' of President Milosevic in
Sremska Mitrovica said to B92 today: ``Several thousands of people
participated in this meeting today. I believe this message to be
the right one -- that peace needs to be preserved. My son is a
student. I visited him in Novi Sad and saw the ones who were
demonstrating. This youth is being manipulated. And that's the
greatest shame.''
ZAJEDNO ACCEPTS THE OSCE COMMISSION
Coalition Zajedno accepted today the decision by OSCE to send a
team to FR Yugoslavia consisting of prominent international
politicians, diplomats and legal experts who are to examine the
regularity of local elections in Serbia. ``Democratic Coalition
Zajedno expects the conclusions of the OSCE mission to be obeyed
by the Serbian authorities,'' said Zajedno. Zajedno added that
they would refuse any sort of political dialogue with Slobodan
Milosevic for as long as the November 17 results are not
acknowledged throughout Serbia. ``Should Slobodan Milosevic fail
to acknowledge the will of the citizens as expressed in the
elections held on November 17, protests and other forms of civic
disobedience will continue until he resigns,'' added Zajedno.
GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION FOR THE STUDENTS OF NIS
Vice-president of the Serbian Democratic Party Zoran Zivkovic
expressed his gratitude to the group of 17 students from Nis who
walked from Nis to Belgrade and had a meeting with Slobodan
Milosevic earlier this week. According to Zivkovic, Milosevic must
have thought he could charm his way around the delegation from Nis
and carry off the meeting by sheer force of his personality.
Zivkovic added that Milosevic's gesture, his contemptuous tossing
away of the electoral minutes from Nis brought to him by UofN
students, speaks plainly of what he thinks about electoral fraud.
FARMERS' BOYCOTT: DECEMBER 23 DEADLINE
On December 23, farmers in Vojvodina, Serbia's bread basket, will
start their boycott of food processing factories which have not
paid for the agricultural produce bought and delivered so far,
announced Serbian Independent Trade Union of Farmers today.
Prepared by: Aleksandra Scepanovic
Edited by: Vaska Andjelkovic (Tumir)
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ODRAZ B92, Belgrade Daily News Service
e-mail: beograd@siicom.com URL: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/
odrazb92@b92.opennet.org http://www.siicom.com/b92/
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